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IC Analysis
IC Analysis
IC Analysis
• This notion was proposed by the American linguist Leonard Bloomfield in his
Language, first published in 1933.
• The aim of this approach is to find out how small constituents or components
(parts) in a sentence join together to form larger constituents or parts.
• So in this approach the linguist will divide each part or constituent in two parts
or constituents until the final or Ultimate Constituents are obtained i.e. when
more division is not possible.
• Let us try to analyse a sentence using IC Analysis:
• Poor John runs away.
• The first question is how to group these words?
• As we have said earlier, IC Analysis will cut this sentence in two pieces. But
which two?
• [Poor] [John runs away]?
• [Poor John] [runs away]?
• [Poor John runs] [away]?
• Which binary division is right here?
• The answer is that the parts which look most relevant to each other; which
make some sense grammatically when they are put together.
• So we have just completed first step of IC Analysis of the above sentence
and found out that Immediate Constituents of “Poor John runs away” are
‘Poor John’ and ‘runs away’.
• So first divisions or cuts of a sentence or a smaller construction such as a
phrase are immediate constituents (ICs).
• Let us subdivide these ICs further.
• [Poor John] [runs away]
• [{Poor} {John}] [{runs} {away}]
• As it can be seen that, we have further subdivided the ICs of previous
level. Please note here that:
• IC Analysis is a hierarchical analysis showing the different constituents at
different structural levels based on the distribution of linguistic forms.
• IC Analysis is a step by step approach at each level. It assumes that a
‘sentence’ or ‘phrase’ or any IC has layers. So without bisecting one layer, we
cannot reach the ‘inner’ layer.
• Hierarchy means ‘step by step’, ‘layer within layer’ or ‘system within system’.
• Linguistic units can be parts of larger constructions and may themselves also
be constructions composed of smaller parts.
• Now let us move further to the end of our analysis.
• [{Poor} {John}] [{runs} {away}]
• [{Poor} {John}] [{(run)(s)} {away}]
• As it can be seen, we have bisected the Constituent ‘runs’ in further ICs i.e.
‘run’ and ‘s’.
• As it can be seen that no constituent can be further subdivided. So we’ve
reached the end.
• Each constituent at this level is called Ultimate Constituent. They are the final
divisions or constituents of a phrase.
• IC Analysis can be done through various techniques.
• Using large brackets is one of them.
Subject Predicate
Base Inflection
Poor John run -s away
Assumptions of IC Analysis
• IC Analysis assumes that:
• The biggest linguistic unit or construction is sentence.
• A sentence is constructed by phrases, and thus, can be analyzed into
phrases.
• A phrase is constructed by words, and thus, can be analyzed into words.
• We shall see some advantages and disadvantages in next lecture.
IC Analysis Practice
• Analyse the following using IC Analysis
• The man bought a car.
• Leave the book on the shelf.
• A pretty lady lent many books.
Advantages of IC Analysis
• IC Analysis identifies different layers of relationship within a construction.
As we have seen already, IC analysis assumes that there are ‘systems within
systems’ in a piece of language (usually a sentence) so it can be used to
identify how different layers are being related to each other.
• [The pretty girl] [put on her red and blue coat kissed her mother and left].
• IC Analysis can be used to disambiguate sentences or phrases. A very
famous example is ‘old men and women’. The adjective ‘old’ is attached to
‘men’ only or ‘men and women’ both? IC Analysis can help:
Limitations of IC Analysis
• IC Analysis cannot analyse the sequences that are separated i.e.
discontinuous.
• E.g. Is John coming?
• The verb ‘is’ is more related to ‘coming’ but the whole constituent ‘is coming’
is separated by ‘John’ so IC Analysis will have a problem here, as it assumes
that language is essentially linear. But that is not the case always.
• IC Analysis cannot help very well without labeling. Simply bracketing cannot
help to point out the sources of ambiguity in a sentence.
• IC Analysis of examples like ‘Flying planes can be dangerous’ cannot be
helpful unless a labeling is given.
• Because ‘flying planes’ works means ‘planes which fly’ in first case, while in
other case is means ‘the act of flying a plane’.